Made to pay more for another flight

A MASwings passenger in Kota Kinabalu said she was told she would have to pay more, if she were to board a different flight to the same destination.

April 21, 2017 @ 10:00am

“WHY should I pay more after being transferred to another flight when the original flight was delayed?” said a MASwings passenger in Kota Kinabalu.

Nabila said she was told if she were to board a different flight to the same destination, she would have to pay more.

“My flight was at 7.45am but it was delayed an hour. So I requested an earlier flight, but was told I had to pay extra,” said the irate passenger. “Although I agreed to pay, I was not able to buy a ticket because the ticketing office opened only at 8am, despite staff at the check-in counter saying the office would open at 6am.”

Another passenger, Christine, had her flight cancelled, but was not compensated as she had to use a different airline to travel to her destination.

She said the airline should have at least informed her earlier of the delay and the eventual cancellation, as well as provide meal vouchers or offer accommodation.

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MASwings head of marketing (commercial) Shauqi Ahmad apologised for the inconvenience caused by the delayed and retimed flights last week.

He said the company was focusing on its fleet improvement programme since February, which resulted in fewer operating aircraft.

“The delays and cancellations in the past few days, however, were caused by technical problems on some aircraft.

“The delays in departing from certain airports also affected the availability of slots for us to park planes upon reaching their destinations,” he said, adding that its operation was back to normal.

On operational procedures, Shauqi said the airline would be able to inform passengers only through short message services or email if the staff knew flight cancellations were made a day before.

On compensation, MASwings will provide meals to passengers if the delay is more than three hours and accommodation if more than six hours.

The carrier will offer the next available flight should there be a cancellation, but will not provide a refund. On the ticketing office, Shauqi said its operating hours were from 8am to 5pm.